Classic Burlesque Stag Show Dance, Films on DVD

Burlesque eventually also came to denote "leg shows" or acts that focused on a woman's body and featured scantily-clad women, often in the act of undressing. The films in this collection do not represent the full range of burlesque on the variety stage, especially because burlesque often relied on dialogue and song, and was longer in length than films of the time. Still, filmmakers took burlesque subjects as their inspiration and often captured burlesque performers.

Turkish dance, Ella Lola - Thomas A. Edison, Inc. A young, dark-haired woman performs a period "Oriental" dance (commonly known as a belly dance) with some Turkish styling. She performs distinctive dance movements that include shoulder shimmies with pelvic movements and several foot patterns, side traveling movements with pelvic circles, a slow pelvic circle and a front pelvic lock, and paddle turns with various arm gestures. Her dance costume consists of a two-layered skirt to the knee, a hip belt with fringe, a chemise-like shirt under a fitted vest, several layers of necklaces and front decoration, white stockings, white-perhaps ballet-shoes, and a glittering fitted cap.

Karina American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. On a bare stage with a black background stands a woman with short, curly hair, wearing a dark dress with a sleeveless top, low-cut bodice, mid-calf length skirt, and layers of petticoats. Smiling at the camera, she seductively raises her skirt to reveal the multiple white petticoats, as well as her lacy, white bloomers to the knees, white tights, and a garter on her right thigh. Peering over her lifted skirt, Karina slowly turns around and then lowers to her knees and leans back, circling with her upper body and arms. Still holding up the skirt, she returns to standing.

Princess Rajah dance / American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Princess Rajah performs an "Oriental" or belly dance, and a balancing chair act in her teeth like that often found in folk performances in various cultures from Northern Africa to Greece. Shot outdoors in a street scene at the St. Louis Exposition, the film captures her act in an extreme long shot. She wears a dark, sleeveless dress to mid-calf, with a fringed, low-cut bodice and fringed belt worn at the waist, over multiple petticoats, bloomers, stockings, and heeled shoes. While playing finger cymbals, Princess Rajah performs a variety of dance movements that include spins, traveling movements, shoulder and hip shimmies, a frontal hip lock, other hip movements, and pirouettes. She then grabs a decorated chair in her teeth and swings it above her head, playing the finger cymbals and performing traveling foot movements, followed by floor work with the chair. Returning to a standing position still with the chair in her mouth, she performs shimmies and hip movements while playing the finger cymbals, then lowers the chair in front of her face and spins. She puts the chair down with a flourish, makes a closing gesture to the camera, and starts to exit the frame.

Pity the blind, No. 2 / American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Filmed version of a popular vaudeville gag, as if from the audience of a variety theater. A boy, holding a sign under his arm, leads a man onto a stage with a painted backdrop of a city street corner. With his dark glasses and cane, the man is apparently blind. He kneels down slightly left of center stage and lays down his hat and cane, while the boy turns the placard around so that it reads "Pity the Blind," places it around the man's neck, and exits the stage. A gentleman with a cigar crosses the stage, pauses to read the sign, and drops some money in the blind man's hat.

Camera is positioned as if in the audience at a vaudeville or burlesque show. Two men with long hair and beards in rough clothing appear to be eating and talking in a box on the left as a female aerialist sits on a trapeze over the stage and its painted backdrop of trees. Fully dressed in street clothing, the trapezist removes her jacket and hat before performing a flip. She stands to remove her skirt and then sits back down on the bar as she takes off her corset and throws it to the country bumpkins in the box, who fight over the undergarment. The trapezist continues to disrobe, removing her shoes, stockings, and garters, again throwing the latter to the men, and then seemingly hangs upside down (with her feet anchored off-camera) as she slips off her petticoat. Thus clad only in tights, trunks, and a camisole, the woman performs her trapeze act to the increasingly excited men. From Edison films catalog:

Kiss me / American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Opens on a stage set of a street with a sidewalk and a high fence completely covered with female burlesque troupe posters. The four posters visible advertise actual contemporary burlesquers Fred Irwin's Majestics, Rose Sydell (of her London Belles), Phil Sheridan's New City Sports (with the tag line "Ain't we three birds"), and the Rentz-Santley Co. One of the center posters--that for Rose Sydell--features an attractive woman with nude shoulders.